Six Years Later, NCES Issues Indicator Report

Nearly six years after it was advised to do so, the Department of
Education's statistics center has issued the first in a series of
reports on education-related data.

"Education and the Economy," released last week by the National
Center for Education Statistics, synthesizes and interprets
existing indicators on such issues as historical trends in worker
productivity in the United States and other countries, the economic
consequences of educational attainment, and the link between worker
training and productivity.

The new report was prompted by recommendations issued in 1991 by the
congressionally mandated Special Study Panel on Education
Indicators.

The panel called for the Education Department to revamp the
statistics agency to create an "education information system" that
would focus on six broad issues: learner outcomes, the quality of
education institutions, children's readiness for school, societal
support for learning, education and economic productivity, and equity.
("E.D. Urged To Revamp N.C.E.S. To
Create 'Information System'," Oct. 2, 1991.)

Last week's study, which cost about $350,000, is expected to be the
first of several indicator reports. In its introduction, Pascal D.
Forgione Jr., the commissioner of education statistics, said that
federal officials chose the link between education and economic
productivity as the topic for the first report because this is a "time
of concern about U.S. economic competitiveness."

Reasons for Delay

The report took six years to pull together, Mr. Forgione said in an
interview, in part because it represented a new type of undertaking for
the agency. Collecting data from sources outside the agency was also
time-consuming, he said, as was reviewing the literature in economics,
and--in a delicate area for a government statistics
agency--interpreting the data.

The study uses 19 indicators to provide information on how education
and economic productivity are linked both on a national basis and for
individuals. "This report makes it quite clear that there is a good
return on the investment for those individuals who finish high school,
get some form of college education, and then keep on learning new
skills," Secretary of Education Richard W. Riley said in a prepared
statement.

The statistics center may report next on the quality of education
institutions, said John Ralph, the NCES program director for data
development.

For information on ordering the report, call the National Library of
Education at (800) 424-1616. Copies are expected to be available
through the Government Printing Office at (202) 512-1800, and on the
department's World Wide Web site: http://www.ed.gov/NCES/.